Rushs chaos

Conservative talker pushes Clinton to damage Democrats

Untitled Document
“Operation Chaos,” Rush Limbaugh’s
campaign urging Republicans to vote for U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton in
Democratic primaries, has been very effective. It doubled Republican
turnout in Ohio and Texas, boosting Clinton and prolonging the Democratic
race. But in Ohio it was also almost certainly illegal. Ohio law requires that citizens genuinely support a
political party to vote in its primary. To change parties for a primary, a
citizen must pledge, under the penalty of election falsification, that he
or she is affiliated with the party and “supports” its
principles. Lying on the pledge is a felony, punishable by as much as a
year in jail and a $2,500 fine. The law also stipulates that poll workers
have a “duty” to challenge voters who are “not a member
of the political party whose ballot the person desires to vote.”In Cuyahoga, Ohio’s largest county, 16,000
Republicans switched parties for the primary last month. Several did so in
bad faith, without truly changing parties, according to newspaper
interviews and Internet postings. The Cuyahoga Board of Elections is
investigating. Despite the massive crossover voting, however, prosecutions
are considered unlikely. A spokesperson for Ohio’s attorney general
told Alternet that it is “very hard to prosecute”
crossover-voting cases because the crime depends on proving a voter’s
motive on Election Day. Limbaugh’s motives, however, have been perfectly
clear from the start. “I’m asking people to cross over and, if
they can stomach it, and I know it’s a difficult thing to do, vote
for Clinton,” Limbaugh said before the Ohio primary. The goal, he
explained, was to ensure that Barack Obama was “bloodied up
politically” and to extend the Democratic primary “soap
opera.”Since the Ohio investigation began, Limbaugh has
revved up his special brand of self-promotional damage control. He ran
several segments defending Operation Chaos with the disingenuous argument
that politicians also ask for crossover voters. Of course, intent makes all
the difference: Reagan Democrats actually supported Reagan. Limbaugh’s campaign is under legal
scrutiny because he asked people to cross over in bad faith — to
tamper with elections. But for $19.95, Limbaugh is still hawking shirts and
caps emblazoned with “Operation Chaos” so listeners can join
the program’s “street team.” Wear one of those shirts to
the polls, though, and you just might provide enough evidence of the motive
needed for prosecution. The shirts list “mission objectives”
such as “enjoy liberals tearing each other apart,”
“prolong” the Democratic primary, “drain the DNC of
campaign cash,” and “win in November.”Finally, Limbaugh is lashing out at anyone who notes
that he urged thousands of listeners, whether maliciously or ignorantly, to
break Ohio law. He recently complained that NBC’s Norah
O’Donnell and the New Republic’s Michael Crowley dared to discuss the issue. Then
he was outraged that Fox’s Julie Banderas said that election-law
violations must be “taken seriously” and “Republican
shock jocks” were possibly “anti-American” for urging
people to break the law. Limbaugh loves playing up partisan fights for his
audience. But this is not only about politics: Rush Limbaugh abused his
listeners’ trust and encouraged potentially illegal
conduct. After a Republican Justice Department spent years
hyping voter-fraud charges, now some of the most blatant election-law
violations are being stoked repeatedly and unrepentantly by one of the most
prominent figures in Republican politics. Ari Melber is a
regular contributor to The Nation magazine, where a version of this column first appeared.